Research Brainstorming

After brainstorming for my research topic I thought it would be the most interesting if I focused on a social controversy. The 3 I came up with were gay marriage, the use or miss use of medical marijuana, and school shootings. I decided on going with school shootings because people don't realize it could happen at their school and I've been hearing about them happening at universities over the years. Now living on a college campus Ive given thought that it could happen here and can relate to any school student. Some possible questions I've raised were: Are school shootings more likely to happen at a large university or at a high school? Why have troubled kids decided to kill their classmates? was it a result of bullying? and finally Has there been an increase or decrease in school violence in United States? After I choose which question I want to further investigate I will definitely narrow the focus to a specific time, location, and maybe even school that has already had a shooting.

Researching 1 in 6 Million & How I fell in Love with Post-It notes

After reading "researching 1 in 6 million" I learned that good research is driven by a passion for the topic. The author was really interested in her grandmother surviving the Holocaust. Her mom wasn't much help in giving a lot of information so having to go out of your way really takes dedication. I do think that her article was more about her experience than giving advice on how to write in depth research papers. In "How I Fell in Love with Post-it notes" I realized I have a lot in common with Susana in that we both have to have our supplies organized and be in a quiet place in order to analyze our reading. I could really relate to her steps because I also take breaks when doing research papers. I may not leave for a weekend but i will definitely sit in front of the TV, work out, or eat a snack to get my mind off of my work. I think her steps are easy for everyone to follow.

Linguistic Landscape

For my linguistic Landscape project I want to focus on the death penalty. It's been a controversial topic from the beginning of time. I did a little research on Troy Davis, who was just recently executed by lethal injection in Georgia. Before he was killed he still announced that he was an innocent man and I realized that some people who are getting killed could actually be innocent. I don't think its right to kill someone for a punishment but would rather be better to just have them rot away in a prison cell for the rest of their lives. For my genre I want to do a graffiti in the quad where everyone can see it, I'm not the best artist but I think its the most efficient to get your message to the public. Ive always found street art to be interesting because they're all different and have different messages. Most people use spray paint or paint but for my project I would use brightly colored chalk to grab the attention of the people passing by. My graffiti will have minimal writing because most people walking by wont have a chance to stop and read it. Along with some writing will be a large picture to drive the point across that the death penalty should be abolished.

"A Bullet for your Arsenal"

In Susana Rodriguez's article I thought a striking point she made was how advertising companies have the knowledge to make visually appealing images. She uses the old I pod Ad to describe how the Ad is used to draw your attention of a mystery silhouette rocking out to music and a vivid neon background to draw the most attention. Then she comapres the new I pod Ads that have amped up colors using swirling chromatics to visually italicize, bold, and underline just how hard the silhouettes are jamming to their handheld idols. She says the newer Ads have gotten sneaky playing with the consumers "emotions and perceptions". I think that's very important to companies because you want the most attention from the audience your trying to market to. Also, I find it helpful that she looks at an image's composition, or layout to help develop even more of a  meaning.

Banksy's Outdoor Graffiti

The features of these genres are both political messages. In the first graffiti art a small girl is frightened by a rat, which he uses as a symbol for the government. In the second graffiti art he draws Abe Lincoln on an abandoned building and portrays him as homeless. Bansky produced both of these images. From looking at some of his artwork I can tell that he takes political messages seriously. Bansky's audience is just the general public, his graffiti is meant to announce his opinion and in the example his opinion on politics and government. I personally think its hard to understand the actual message of the second graffiti of Abraham Lincoln because the first one is pretty straight forward that people are afraid of the government. I think hes trying to say the government isn't beneficial to anyone, it just causes poverty.

Language Awareness in the classroom

I interviewed Steph Pepin about her spoken language in her family. I learned that even though she lives in Niles her Grandma from her mom's side came straight from Poland and knows both english and polish as well as her mom. I asked her about how she speaks around her house to her parents and siblings. I found it interesting that she speaks a little polish and with her brother some spanish, since they both took spanish in high school and her dad is part Puerto Rican and Polish, I thought it was really cool she has so much culture in her family.Steph's boyfriend also speaks polish.

On Critiquing and changing genres

I think the most important thing I learned from reading the article "Critiquing and changing articles" is knowing when to use an appropriate genre for a specific situation. It's important because if you don't want to lose the audience your trying to capture by not using a genre that's suitable for something, like a billboard, you don't want to use a lot of words and no pictures. The successfulness of any message is based upon the genre that is used by the creator.